Skull & Crown Store

2/22/17

Breaking Lances: Dundracon Tournaments

A few knights getting in warm up passes before the tournament

Tournaments Ho!

All the knights ready for action.

This past Saturday I ran a 10 person tournament using my somewhat soon to be published Breaking Lances rules at Dundracon game convention. It was well attended with over 18 players signing up! This is a real coup, as DDC is mostly a role playing and board game con, with lots of LARPing going on around and in between.

Folks from the Society of Creative Anachronism in garb playing- Cool!

A grand shot of all the ponies!

A shot with yours truly explaining the rules

Great shot of knight, Plotting shield, and Tilting tray for tracking "won" dice

With the amount of players I kept the first rounds single elimination, with a couple of players held back for bi rounds and outlyers. Everyone got the rules in the first course of their jousts, and I think fun was had by all.

Our Tournament winner!

I totally forgot to get the name of the winning knight- no doubt some noble that was slumming at my tourney, but remember he won with a score of 6 points higher over all than the 2nd place opponent.

Sunday's Tourney

As Saturday's tournament went so well, and there were many that did not get to play, I opened up the lists for Sunday as well. This table had 3 jousting runs, and cycled through 12 players in all.

Sir Brion- Sunday's tournament winner

When can I play Breaking Lances?

Good question! This tournament weekend proved to me that not only are the rules working, and the added layers of complexity (such as the optional "flourish" rule) can be added or subtracted with no hitches, but that folks actually want their own knights and set ups. The only changes that came from the weekend was a clarification on a "Favor" you can win, and upping the crit severity when you get really bonked on the head. Yay!

I had a lot of folks as if I was going to make this a kick starter. That would make a lot of sense and get good press, but I think that I'm for now just going to get it ready for launch on my webstore. The rules are now in the hands of my editors, and I have enough toys to take good pictures for the rules, so now it's really a matter of time on getting all the ducks in a row. Luckily most of this part is out of my hands, as my Triumph of Death Kickstarter coming out soon, causing a bit of juggling of my time

So, stay tuned, if you really can't wait for a release I'm happy to sell you sets of Breaking Lances ( I sold 11 "pre-launch" sets at Dundracon), send you a beta version layout of the rules and post you the real set when they come out. just ping me and let me know.

More Pictures of Dundracon!

For lots more pictures of Dundracon, including more of my game and an awesome refight of Pickett's charge, swing on over to my pal Jay's Wargaming Madness Blog

Ahoy Argonor- Thanks for the ask. The idea behind the game is a momement to moment feeling as you charge closer to your opponent, trying all the while to control 2,000lbs of horse, keep your lance on target (or trick your opponent as to where you will strike) all the while trying to maintain a good defensive posture.

I nicked this review of the game off of Jay's Wargaming madness, that does a great job breaking down the play by play. I'll just get too beardy and keep talking other wise :)..." Thomas Foss brought out his new game called Breaking Lances. I picked up two sets from him (total of 4 knights, two "rails" and all the playing aids). Rather than just focusing on the moment of impact in a joust, Thomas has created a more realistic game that of course has the moment of impact, but also captures the whole journey from the moment the jouster heads out and starts to jockey their horse, body, lance and shield into the perfect combination of attack and defence.

This is an easy game to learn and is very fun! In short, each player has a board to gather dice on (D6's). In addition to the dice board, there is a small shield that holds three cribbage pegs. The first covers if you a cantering or galloping. If you canter, you roll a D6 and need a 2+ to avoid bad things and move one "post" down the railing. If you gallop you need a 5+ on a D6. If you pass, you get to add 1D6 to your dice board that can be allocated to attack or defence later on (at the moment of impact). If you fail you loose a die ... and if you don't have a die to loose you must roll a D6. On a 1, your horse bucks and gives a significant dice advantage to your opponent.

Each turn players plot their attack posture and defence posture (head, body or shield). This is done in secrecy and both players reveal their shield simultaneously. If you attack a part that is not what the other play defends you gain an attack die to your board, if they defend the attacked area, the other player gains a defence die (this is also done for their attack and your defence). This continues until both knights meet or pass each other. Then dice for galloping are allocated, and attack and defence dice are picked up and rolled to see how many hits and blocks occur. There is of course just a little more to it than that --- but that is the core of the game. It drew great crowds and everyone had fun playing.

Another awesome game from your infanitly creative mind!! I had a blast playing ... even while getting bonked in the head. Looking forward to getting this on the tabletop. Spectacular painting on the knights as well!